I watched Park Muyeol blowing fire from his mouth and laughed while holding my stomach. It was so funny that I wiped away the tears that leaked out without my knowledge and held my stomach for a long time. The first time I encountered the sun meatb.a.l.l.s came to my mind. The six sun meatb.a.l.l.s made by Zalmergus—I still couldn't forget the tremendous spiciness. I didn't know if Zalmergus was doing well.

I would take this opportunity to make it.

“...Ahh ehh ohh owu ehhh.”

“What are you saying? Tell me properly.”

“Ahhhh...”

“Where is the barking dog?”

I ignored Park Muyeol who was staring at me with furious eyes while his mouth was full of snow from the North Pole. Then I started making the sun meatb.a.l.l.s. I used familiar movements to make the purified liquid lava into a ball and fried it with a skilled touch like Zalmergus. I made it as hot and spicy as possible. The finis.h.i.+ng touch came from Solar.

“Hehe~♬ Hehehe~ ♪ Delicious sun meatb.a.l.l.s~♪”

Solar expertly sent out an ultrhigh heat and coated the meatb.a.l.l.s with the hot sun. It was very excited by the thought of eating the meatb.a.l.l.s. Thus, the meatball of the sun was completed.

[Superior quality! Lavinfused Meatb.a.l.l.s of the Sun]

[How likely is it to eat lava in your life?

The foolish chef who made this tried to do so.

His enthusiasm resembled lava and he produced this ridiculous result. It is recommended for those who want to feel the true spicy taste.

-Star Taste: ☆☆☆☆☆

-Expiration Date: 10 days.

Efficacy: If you eat this dish, you will be protected by the sun throughout the day. However, if the fire resistance is less than 50%, you will die from damage that is proportional to your physique.

-Strength increased by 50%.

-Defense increased by 50%.

* The fire attribute attack damage is increased by 50%.

* Fire resistance is increased by 50%.]

“Oh, finally.”

I finally reached the same point as Zalmergus. The color really resembled the hot sun. I couldn't believe I had eaten something like this.

Haha.

“Ueon uwaah?”

I once again ignored the unknown dog sounds. I was about to eat a meatball with a fork when I found Solar beside me and laughed. I threw the meatb.a.l.l.s to Solar. Of course, it was except for the one I had to eat.

“Delicious~! Master! Hehe ♬”

“Eat a lot.”

I saw Solar singing and noticed that I was smiling like a father. No, it was a smile like a grandfather. In any case, a smile was a smile.

Park Muyeol finally managed to speak, “Uwah. I thought I was going to die. By the way, what is that?”

“Solar. It is the sun elemental.”

“What is an elemental?”

“It's annoying to explain. Just think of it like a pet dog.”

“Oh~ a dog? I know. I know. Come here, Solar, come here~?”

Solar saw Park Muyeol's fierce face, puffed up its cheeks, and spat out a red flame. Park Muyeol's face was burned black. It looked like charcoal soot and I burst out laughing again.

“Puhahaha!”

“Eeeeek!”

Park Muyeol swung his wooden sword at Solar like an angry bear, but it was useless. It wouldn't work against Solar. The surrounding area was filled with fire energy and the sun energy was quickly recharged. It was the so-called 'invincibility.'

...Wait, could I use this? I scrambled to find an item. The moment I found it, I held it in my hand.

“Yes, there's no problem here.”

It was Minotaur's Blazing Heart that I bought at the auction house the other day.

* * *

At Erebos Castle, near the Orca Kingdom...

This place contained the world's number one and the first place in the swordsman ranking. It was the place where Michael, a member of the American national team and the ace of the Zeus Guild, was the lord. This was why it was always crowded. Half of them were fans, some were spy forces to keep the Zeus Guild in check and the rest were users stopping by on the way to hunt.

However, today there wasn't a single user. No, except for existing NPCs, only members of the Zeus Guild were here. They were all gathered here to prepare for the World Compet.i.tion.

“He's coming.”

The guild leader Damian looked up at the sky of Erebos and smiled when he saw the huge sand covering the sun. It was like facing a giant sun G.o.d as the members of the Zeus Guild stared at the man coming down from above with amazement. The overwhelming sound of his footsteps seemed to be arrogantly saying he was the strongest, but no one could refute it. He was the man who reigned in the strongest position here in Arkstar.

“You came.”

“Sorry, I'm late,” Michael spoke to Damian, who stood next to him, before staring around at the Zeus Guild members. He was called the ace here and came to them with dignified eyes. It was a far cry from when he was with Park Muyeol.

“...Everyone has suffered.”

“No!”

Their screams rang out through Erebos.

“The World Compet.i.tion is a celebration of people all over the world. Our Zeus Guild has always held the strongest position even though our place of residence, nationality and appearance are different.

Michael examined them lightly and declared, “Don't disappoint those who have come from afar to see you. We are Zeus.”

Shouts of excitement burst from each guild member. It was as if they had seen the G.o.ddess of victory before a war. The shouts lasted quite a long time.

Damian smiled lightly at Michael's back and told him, “Let's go. There's someone I want you to meet.”

“Who do you want me to meet?”

“You don't know because you haven't been chatting with the guild, but I've recently picked a new executive.”

“Executive?”

Michael's eyes widened slightly at Damian's words. The position of an executive of the Zeus Guild wasn't easy to come by. To do so, the first condition was skill. The second was also skill. The third was skill. It was like a small society that encouraged compet.i.tion, but there was no refuting the fact that the Zeus Guild could rise to its current position.

“Who is it? If they had pa.s.sed the test, then their skills… well, it goes without saying.”

“Haha. Let's go. He is waiting. I'm going to choose him as one of the US national representatives in this World Compet.i.tion.”

Damian was the leader of the United States team. Like Michael, Damian's skills were good, but his brain was even better. He had a strategist's perspective and his view of people was excellent. This was why they had people like Reinhardt, Cappuccino, and Reina. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that the current selection of the United States' national team revolved around him. It was entirely Damian's job to select those who would join the compet.i.tion.

Michael wondered, “It is to that extent? Wait a minute, is he American?”

“Yes, he is Korean American, but he is naturalized a long time ago.” 

Michael briefly thought of someone when he heard the word 'Korean.'

'In retrospect, he was Korean.'

Michael thought this country was surprisingly talented and looked at Damian again.

“I'd like to meet him.”

Damian nodded and led Michael to the location of the new recruit. It was the huge lord's office. No, it was more like a huge hall where the king met people rather than an office. There was a chair on top of two staircases. Damian wanted to turn that little chair into a throne. He wanted to make Michael the king of the world. He vowed to live a thorough life of a politician. Michael had no idea about this.

The two men opened the door to the office and saw a young Asian man. Originally, it was hard for Westerners to measure the age of Asians. Even so, this person looked very young. The two pistols at his waist stood out.

“Say h.e.l.lo. He is young. Is he the youngest?”

Before Damian's eyes, the new young man held out a hand for a handshake.

“It is nice to meet you. I'm a big fan. Can I call you Brother from now on? I'm James Lee. You can just call me James.”

* * *

Minotaur's Blazing Heart—in fact, the reason I hadn't fed this to Solar was due to a system message. It was really unexpected and also related to Solar's evolution. This evolution was very dangerous. I once again faced the message and gulped.

[Do you want to feed Minotaur's Blazing Heart to Solar?]

[After being fed, Solar will awaken new abilities.]

[It will also bring about evolution and the surrounding terrain can experience ma.s.sive climate change due to the enormously high temperature.]

[It is recommended that you move as far away from villages as possible.]

The most prominent thing was 'ma.s.sive climate change.'

I didn't know how big it would be, but it would definitely be serious if the system used such a modifier. Additionally, it recommended that I leave the villages. I thought there was nothing wrong after hearing about it. This was the wisdom I learned through Prometheus. It was why I was still thinking about when to use it.

At first, I thought I should go to the North Pole. I thought I should go there once after hearing Gyeonso Dragon talk about training in the North Pole. Then I thought about it again and it was a dangerous story. That d.a.m.n tundra dragon would kill me if the climate changed by mistake. However, here...

“It is different.”

I placed the Minotaur's heart in my hand into Solar's mouth. Solar had been clamoring for a while after seeing this. It opened its mouth and demonstrated it wouldn't shut it until I gave it to him.

“Nyam ~♬”

Solar mumbled with a happy expression. A short time later, a message appeared in front of me.

[Solar, the sun elemental, has eaten Minotaur's Blazing Heart.]

[Solar's evolution has begun.]

“Oof?!”

Solar was eating well, only to become amazed as it emitted a huge amount of heat. It was hard to breathe from the intense heat even for the fire-resistant me. Park Muyeol had been fighting here for a long time and increased his fire resistance or he would've already died.

“Urgh. What is this again?”

Park Muyeol was already using Lion's Armor, one of Hercules' constellation skills. He was wearing Nemea's lion skin from head to toe. It was Hercules' legendary skill that gave him strong physical defense and all-attributes resistance. If the information I knew was correct, this was one of only two active skills.

Of course, the other one was Stick's Protection. The rest were pa.s.sives that were triggered automatically. Of course, it would bring sure death.

[Solar's evolution has begun.]

[The evolution will fail if attacked before the evolution is over.]

[The surrounding terrain will begin to change.]

Solar's size grew larger and a huge sun appeared. The size reached the height of a fifth floor apartment. At the same time, heat poured from Solar's body and the lava started to boil. A temporary earthquake occurred. Fortunately, it was up to here. I let out a light sigh. It seemed that the ma.s.sive climate change hadn't come.

“Phew.”

Park Muyeol exclaimed, “What? Why is your pet dog like this?”

“It is evolving.”

“Evolving? Is it the same 'evolution' (word) that I know of?”

“Yes.”

“It is a strange dog.”

Park Muyeol was already looking at Solar like it was a puppy. No one knew how Solar would change after evolution. Perhaps it would be a real puppy.

“Let's go down and hunt.”

“Okay. What about this one?”

“No one will be able to get close.”

"Indeed, it seems so.”

Park Muyeol nodded as he gazed at Solar, who was surrounded by magma. I pointed to a huge active volcano in the distance. “We should go there.”